The invention generally relates to the field of database access systems, and more particularly to enterprise integration systems that enable data access to and from external data sources such as legacy systems.
Organizations typically store business information in a variety of databases using a variety of platforms. For example, an organization may employ a Peoplesoft™ information base for managing human resources, an IBM DB2™ system for accounting purposes; and an Oracle™ database system for manufacturing activities. It can often be advantageous to integrate such enterprise information and make it accessible at a single terminal in order to provide the user with meaningful information concerning the status of an organization. A variety of tools for doing this are commercially available such as the Domino Enterprise Connection Services™ (DECS) or Lotus Enterprise Integrator™ (LEI) tools for use with the Domino™ web application development platform marketed by Lotus Development Corp. These interactive and high speed database query products typically have a server engine for processing applications. When access to an external data source is required, the engine typically calls a connector function in order to access the external database and translate requests between the native system and the external system.
In order to access the external system, security credentials must usually be presented. In the prior art integration tools from Lotus Development Corp., the engine either passed along default security credentials or requested security credentials from the user prior to making the connection to the external database. Both of these techniques have shortcomings, as explained in greater detail below. A more practical method is desired to establish connections to external databases, preferably without having to make substantial changes to the database query products or any applications developed by such products.